To the Party (May 1904)

Written:Written after May 15 (28), 1904Published:First published in 1930 inLenin Miscellany XV.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      publisher??,pubdate??,

      Moscow,Volume 7,

      pages432-434.Translated:Fineberg AbrahamTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2002).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

I.Answer the tittle-tattle about Bonapartism. Nonsense.
	  Beneath dignity to reply. Freedom of agitation for congress.
	  No stand by Central Committeequa

			     talis,[1]unlike Central
	  Organ.

It’sthe committees that must decide, and the Central
	  Committee invites them to weigh the pros and cons calmly and
	  carefully, hear both sides, study the documents without
	  undue haste, with an awareness of Party duty.

II.Call for positive work. Importance of present juncture:
      the war. Appeal of Central Committee delegates in the

			      Council.[2]Repeat. Ideological struggle must not interfere
	  with positive work. Impermissible forms of
	  struggle. Differences and divergencies should not be
	  exaggerated.

III.Attempt gradually to establish passable
	  relations. (Karl Kautsky’s

 appeal.[3])

CentralCommittee proposes terms for amodus vivendi:

1)The right for allsixto publish everything at
      the Party’s expense.

2)Idemfor writers’ group with representation at
             congress.

3)Suspension for a prolonged period of the appointment and
             dismissal of members.

4)Guarantee for a prolonged period of certain rights of the minority.

5)Guarantee thatallParty publications will be
             distributed and delivered at a committee’s wish.

6)Truce for at least six months; the finale—a 16-page
             pamphlet shared half-and-half. The minority to have the
	  last word.

[1]As such.—Ed.

[2]See pp. 147–49 of this volume.—Ed.

[3]In a letter
      printed inIskra, No. 66 (May 15, 1904), Karl Kautsky had urged
      that no Party Congress to discuss the differences between the Bolsheviks and
      Mensheviks should be called until a “truce” was established in
      the Party.